


Tangerine Dreams

by velvet_sometimes



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Cushings Disease, Drabble Collection, Drama, F/M, Gods, Hospitals, Illnesses, Medical Procedures, Romance, god touched
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-27
Updated: 2012-04-27
Packaged: 2017-11-04 09:42:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 2,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velvet_sometimes/pseuds/velvet_sometimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She laughed and it bubbled up from deep within her, soft and full and bittersweet. Like tangerines. Nominated in the Dokuga Awards for 'Best Drama'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to answer some questions asked by Melantao! The condition Kagome has is Cushings. Cushing's syndrome occurs when your body is exposed to high levels of the hormone cortisol for a long time. The most common cause of Cushing's syndrome, sometimes called hypercortisolism, is the use of oral corticosteroid medication. The condition can also occur when your body makes too much cortisol. Symptoms of this include, but are not limited to: Fatigue, Muscle weakness, Depression, anxiety and irritability, Loss of emotional control, Cognitive difficulties, New or worsened high blood pressure, Glucose intolerance that may lead to diabetes, Headache, Bone loss, leading to fractures over time, Pink or purple stretch marks (striae) on the skin of the abdomen, thighs, breasts and arms, Thinning, fragile skin that bruises easily, and Slow healing of cuts, insect bites and infections.
> 
> This story is based (partly) on the real life experiences of a good friend of mine, Tangerine Dream, who's a lot braver than I am. You inspire me.

**Symptoms**

Just one MRI of many. Was it sad that she was getting used to this? Going to the hospital, stripping down to her skivvies, and sitting in a tube for 45 minutes to check for tumors or various other things that might _possibly_ be wrong with her.

She sincerely hoped the male nurse placing the padding around her head played for the other team, because her current attire left little to the imagination.

As the little bed slid in and the machine started to thunk and buzz, she thought on the irony of her current situation.

Kagome, the Shikon priestess, savior of the world more than 500 years in the past, was stuck worrying over her health just like everyone else. It was disheartening; she always thought it would be something… _grander_ , that swept her feet out from under her. But really, if the jewel of four souls couldn't kill her, then isn't it appropriate that it be something like this?

When her family first suggested that something might be wrong, she firmly refused to go to the hospital. She just couldn't accept that she could fall prey to some sort of human disease. After all that had happened… or, that she _thought_ had happened; sometimes she forgot her own humanity.


	2. Chapter 2

**Diagnoses**

She sat on the table with hands clenched and head down, listening to the doctor in a shocked stupor. She was just another patient to him. Another diagnosis. It wasn't his job to care, Sesshoumaru decided as he checked all her vital signs. This, Kagome Higurashi, was just another girl in many.

Even if she did smell of clean air and sweet water. Something he hadn't smelled in longer than he could remember.

At the announcement of 'Cushings' she choked for a moment, a hand flying to her throat. He could smell the few tears that escaped. But then she did something no one expected.

She laughed.

It bubbled up from deep within her, soft and full and bittersweet, like tangerines. And it was like a ghost from a time so long in the past that it was little more than a dream now.

His eyes snapped over to her face and his breath caught.


	3. Chapter 3

**Growth**

Sesshoumaru though his heart had stopped beating for a moment, before picking up in double speed.

He couldn't believe his ears. His eyes. Was it really her? After all of these years? She had to be the Shikon Priestess, but she had disappeared after wishing onto the jewel, winking out of existence.

How could she be here? He had always assumed that she had given up her form to take the jewel from this world.

He was jolted from his confused musings at the sound of the doctors voice, explaining to her about a growth, a tumor, in her pituitary gland.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Yes, he heard things of this nature daily, but this was the _Shikon Priestess_. She had saved this world. He didn't know why, or how it was possible, but somewhere down the line during the long years, he had built her up as invincible in his memory. Stronger than his father. Stronger than himself.

As she was leaving the room, he grabbed her arm. Her shocked look, and breathy exclamation of his name was enough to cement her identity in his mind.

"Come walk with me."


	4. Chapter 4

**March**

When the doors opened and the cold air hit them, she couldn't have looked more normal, burrowing into the warmth of her scarf. You couldn't tell just walking beside her that she was so sick. Human illnesses would always puzzle him that way.

They walked for a little ways into the park beside the hospital before coming to a stop at a bench. It was a normal bench. Just like any other. Lightly dusted with the late January snow that was lazily falling all around them. Nothing special about it, except that it was the bench that she choose.

"Your surgery is scheduled for March."

"So you found me," she stated, looking up at the sky, and ignoring his watched her, the way her dark hair flared out over her blue scarf. He liked the contrast. Her colors looked washed out in the harsh glare of the street light above them, adding to the surreal quality of this whole absurd meeting. "I always knew you could do anything."

"So now what?" was all he could manage before she pinned him under her gaze. Startlingly blue. Half mad. Partly sad. Mostly the eyes of someone who had seen things most could never imagine.

"You know that my grandfather would make up all sorts of bizarre and spectacular illnesses so that I could travel back in time to fight Naraku with you all? Isn't it so beautifully ironic that I actually have one now?" She was quiet for a moment, and he gave her that moment, not speaking. "When I look back though, it's glaringly obvious that something had to have been wrong with me." She laughed without any mirth, and he found himself frowning.

He looked at her curiously. "So you are the Shikon Priestess."

She flashed him a smile that made his heart ache in a way that was decidedly too human.

"You're probably the only person in this world that remembers me as so." She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling out her ribbon. She held it out to him with both of her hands, as if it were a precious treasure. "Please continue to remember me as I was."

Startled, he carefully accepted the thin piece of fabric, and watched in silence as she stood up and walked away.

He watched her go, waiting until she was out of sight before looking down at her gift in his hand. It was just a ribbon. Light pink and worn, slightly crinkled from being tied in the shape of a bow. He wondered if he had ever accepted a more precious gift.


	5. Chapter 5

**Aware**

They walked alongside each other, like they had every day for the past few weeks. Just walking.

They had spoke of everything. Almost like the words were their sustenance. He had craved for another old soul to reminisce with so much it hurt. She had longed for someone, anyone, who remembered who and what she was, to remind her it wasn't all just a crazy dream.

"It's so strange. It feels like I'm _living_ , for the first time since I made the wish." She looked up at him and really smiled.

"I confess that I have always wondered what happened. You just held the jewel and closed your eyes. Then you were gone."

She looked him in the eye and he shivered. She did that sometimes. With just a look, she could remind him that no matter how many centuries he had lived, she had see sights that he could never dream of.

It was like in those moments, the air around her shifted, and there was something waiting just below her skin. More, and less, than human. His senses prickled in awareness, and he reveled in the feeling. _It had been so long since anything like her had roamed his lands_.

"And wonder you shall. There are no words for what transpired anyway."


	6. Chapter 6

**Care**

He was always there when she came to see her doctor. She knew he scheduled those days. It was his way of showing he cared, though he would never admit to it if questioned.

He was making sure she didn't have to face the doctor alone. As if his presence alone would keep anything from going sour.

She appreciated the sentiment, though she knew his absence would make no difference in the outcome; she had touched the gods, and could end up sick. Having a Taiyoukai in the room with her wouldn't change the doctor's answer.

He always found a way to be behind her when the doctor started to explain everything though; a warm comfort at her back. If asked, she would never admit it, but, It _helped_.


	7. Chapter 7

**Support**

"Kagome." Sesshoumaru was walking slower than usual, staring at the darkness in the trees lining their path.

She looked back at him, puzzled. "What?"

He was quiet, so she walked back to him, standing close enough to him that she had to look up to see his face. Surprise knocked the wind out of her when his arms crushed her to his chest. His face buried itself in her hair.

She could barely hear him, muffled as his voice was. "Let me be your support. I need something to protect again, and you are the only one left."

"And what happens after me? I can't last forever," she whispered into his shoulder, her arms coming up to wrap around his waist. She knew he could hear her.

"Of course you will. I'll never let you leave my side again, even if I have to walk the shadowy path you do so easily to bring you back." His hands were rubbing soothing circles into her back as he spoke.

She laughed softly, a smile settling on her mouth as she spoke. "Whether I like it or not, eh?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Screen ******

Kagome's heels clacked loudly on the tile floor as she made her way to the room she was supposed to take her latest test in.

She wasn't really looking forward to this one; they were supposed to put her to sleep and inject some sort of dye into her.

Somehow, she was glad she was going to get to go to sleep; Sesshoumaru couldn't hold her hand during this one, as he had taken to doing recently.

He would break so he could sit with her through whatever she had to get done.

But guests were not allowed back here for this one. This was serious this time; they were screening for the exact location of her tumor, and whether she was going to need radiation.

And gods if she wasn't scared to find out.


	9. Chapter 9

**Touch**

"Do not push me, Lord Sesshoumaru. You know not what you ask." Her gaze was firmly leveled on his, but the taiyoukai was feeling reckless. It had been so long since he had an adrenaline high like this; and really, what was more dangerous for the strongest demon left living than provoking a god touched miko?

"I know very well what I ask. Tell me what the other side is like. I have seen hell, but you have never touched that soil." For him, it felt like suicide - but it also felt _damn_ good.

"You, taiyoukai, have an insatiable urge to know everything, and that is going to get you into a lot of trouble." And the tingly feeling of _other_ was back; he could have danced in joy.

"Tell me."

That's when she exploded. He could feel her Reiki snaking around him like tendrils of power. Licking at his skin, raking down his back like a lover's nails. "Damn it, Sesshoumaru, _what do you want from me_! It was everything and it was nothing! I knew how to heal with a touch! Kill with a thought! It was like the gods were all around me, whispering in my ears and I don't have the words to tell _you any of it_!"

He grabbed her by the arms and lifted her, spinning her around. They were both breathing hard and wild eyed; he had a feral grin on his face. They locked gazes. " _That_ was what I was wanting."

He kissed her then. And the since of 'otherness' faded away, leaving him with just his Kagome.


	10. Chapter 10

_Inflamed_

Laying there, she couldn't get her mind off of Sesshoumaru. The look in his eyes, his smile, his wildly beating heart, _that kiss_. Why couldn't she stop thinking about him? Or about how sticky this bed was. Really, what did they clean these things with? It was that _clean_ sort of sticky….

Just then, the speaker buzzed, and the raspy voice of her nurse crackled through the room. "Are you okay, Miss. Higurashi? Your heart rate just increased."

Feeling herself blush, she replied, "Just fine. Thinking is all."

"Oh? About a certain male nurse you were seen kissing last week? It's the talk of the second floor station." She could hear the giggling of the other two nurses in the room with her. She groaned.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"About 6 foot? Long bleached hair, yellow brown eyes, doesn't talk much, blue scrubs today?"

Kagome didn't reply for a long moment. "Where is he?"

There was another fit of giggles through the crackling speaker.

"On the other side of the double doors waiting for you."

Kagomes cheeks flushed at the thought his knowing smirk; those doors weren't sound proof. "I know you're listening Sesshoumaru, and you had _better_ not be out there when I get out of this thing. There are _windows_ in those doors."


	11. Chapter 11

**Ribbon**

Kagome was sitting on the bed staring at the ceiling, too apprehensive of the whole operation to really do much else.

"Do not worry," Sesshoumaru's deep voice rang out in the odd quiet of the hallway.

Her eyes slowly slid down to meet his. She didn't need to speak; didn't know if she could anyway.

He ran a hand through his hair, pulling out the ribbon that kept it from falling around him like a curtain.

He held it up for her to see. Light pink and worn, slightly crinkled from being tied in the shape of a bow. Hers. "I'll be right here waiting for you, and when you recover, you are to wear this for me."

Again, she didn't need to speak, didn't know if she could, so instead she gave him a watery smile, and he kissed the tears away as they ran down her cheeks.


	12. Chapter 12

**Pink**

They gave me the shot while I was lying on the table outside the operating room. They asked me to count back from one hundred, but I couldn't focus, I kept thinking I was going to fall off. The table was just so _small_.

Then the shining brightness from the light they were pointing in my eyes stared to twirl and stretch, twisting into my ribbon. Long and flowing and pink, it wrapped around me as the edges of my vision started to darken.

The ribbon snaked underneath me, supporting me. I couldn't fall as long as my ribbon was around me.

And as the world faded to black, I was no longer afraid.


	13. Chapter 13

**Treatment**

The surgeon worked quickly and diligently, trying to take the tiny tumor from her pituitary gland without damaging anything.

Entering through a small incision made below her upper lip, the surgery was going smoothly. That's probably why everything went wrong; nothing in her life ever went smoothly.

She watched from above as her heart stopped, and as if in slow motion, everyone started to move. It was a flurry of activity below her, yet she was powerless to do anything.

She watched as they brought out the defibrillator and shocked her. Once, twice, three times. She felt the buzz of electricity coarse though her. It was curious

She watched with nothing more than mild curiosity as they turned the power up one last time.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, so she turned, and the world turned white.


	14. Chapter 14

**Survive**

The world was hazy. Tilting and swirling, like everyone was dancing sideways. A world tilted on its axis. Silvery and shining like starlight; flowing across her lap like a river. Wait, no, that was hair. Sesshoumaru's hair. Why was his head in her lap?

She tried to ask, but she couldn't quite seem to make her mouth form the correct words. She was saying something, but she wasn't sure it was what she wanted.

He raised his head and pressed his forehead to hers.

She wrinkled her brow in frustration. How was she supposed to concentrate when he was trying to push his way into her brain?

She had something vital to tell him. She knew it. She just couldn't remember what. A hazy idea of something he needed to hear. Slowly and carefully, she sounded out each word.

"I think my heart stopped, Sesshoumaru. I saw the gods again."


	15. Chapter 15

**Squeeze**

This felt very much like déjà vu to Sesshoumaru. She was sitting on the table, hands clenched and head down, listening as the doctor rattled on; waiting for him to tell her the results of the latest MRI.

But this time, he wasn't in his scrubs, and he wasn't checking her vitals. He was here with her, and he cared very much.

He wasn't sure what sort of step he was making, or rather, if it was a step or a leap, but he didn't much care as he leaned over from behind the table and grasped her hand.

Leaning forward to whisper in her ear, he said, "You're not alone in this, Kagome. I'm right here with you."

She squeezed his hand when the doctor gave them the news.

"No new tumor has re-grown. You're going to be fine."


End file.
